


Ambience

by orphan_account



Series: Glory and Gore [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Hallucinations, Humanstuck, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Incest, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-17 02:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3511280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave is oblivious, Rose is devious, and Dirk is a mess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so this is the beginning of something really big that i've been working on. i'm planning on making this into a series with multiple stories, so be on the lookout. as always, feel free to shoot me a message for questions, comments concerns etc. and also follow the blog for this verse on tumblr at gloryandgoreverse!

You sprawl out on the silky fabric and wait for Rose to return from the bathroom. The bed is big and nice and soft, and the deep purple sheets are clean and smell like heaven. You briefly consider letting yourself fall asleep, before realizing that she would never let you. Sighing, you prop yourself up on your elbows and grab your phone off the bedside table and check your messages. 

You immediately regret that decision. There’s five new messages from Karkat.

CG: HEY, YOU HAVEN’T CHECKED IN IN A WHILE.  
CG: YOU OKAY?  
CG: WHATEVER. I’LL BE HERE WHENEVER YOU DECIDE TO GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER AND CRAWL BACK OUT OF WHATEVER DESOLATE HOLE YOU’VE MANAGED TO GET YOURSELF INTO THIS TIME.  
CG: JUST LET ME KNOW YOU’RE OKAY, WHENEVER YOU HAPPEN TO SEE THIS.  
CG: TELL ROSE I SAID HI.

At least he’s safe, and not out on the street getting treated like jailbait by some trashbag again. You should let him know that you’re okay, though.

TG: sorry man  
TG: i just had to get out for a while  
TG: and ill be honest i totally forgot i had a phone for a while  
TG: promise ill be back tomorrow night and take you out somewhere and buy you a nice big dinner  
TG: provided you dont claw my eyes out as soon as you see me  
TG: no worries though  
TG: im okay  
TG: thanks

You set your phone back on the table before he can respond. Fortunately for you, the door opens and Rose comes back into the room. She’s changed into a pair of sweatpants and thrown on an old shirt you left here way back when. All of her makeup is gone, making her look younger. Fuckin’ cheat. 

She looks like she did when you were kids. This doesn’t affect her ability to intimidate the shit out of you. 

“Hey. Dude.”

You’re staring. “Yeah?”

She scoffs quietly and climbs on the bed to sit cross-legged next to you. "Karkat?”

You hate how she can read you like a motherfucking book. She knows you were talking to him, and she knows it kills you to do this. But you need it. You’ve needed this for months.

You shake your head and reach out to grab her hand and bring the back of it to your lips. The back of her hand smells like fruity lotion when you kiss it. “Thanks, Rose.”

She pulls her hand back to place it on the top of your head, running through your hair. 

“Don’t thank me. We decided that this was mutually beneficial.” 

She’s got you there, but you’re still going to continue thanking her. You’ve need a break from everything, from yourself, for months. You grab her hand off your head and lace your fingers together. “I’m gonna go smoke. Join me.”

“Is that an order?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at you.

“Please,” you start again, smiling, “join me.”

“I would love to.”

You sit up and give her a kiss on the cheek before sliding out of bed and pulling your boxers on. Rose grabs your cigarettes and lighter off the table and presses them into your hand as she walks past you, onto the balcony. You follow, leaning on the railing and looking at her. Your shades had been abandoned at the front door. They always were. It’s one of her many ways of making you as emotionally open to her as you can possible. 

“How is he?” she asks, gazing out into the city.

“Fine. Good.”

“Dave.”

The way she says it makes you die a little on the inside. He is good, he’s great. “What?”

“He isn’t okay with his,” she says, shifting her gaze back to you. “is he?”

“We’ve talked about it. He understands, but it still grates on him.” After a moment’s hesitation, you add “I hate seeing him like that.” You pull two cigarettes out of the box and hand one to her, which you offer to light before your own.

“Understandably.” She takes a long drag before responding again. “Do you want to stop?”

“Do you?” You can’t make yourself meet eyes with her, so you twirl the cigarette in your fingers.

“I want you both to be okay. How would you prefer I go about that?”

“Just-” you stop. How should you go about this? You know he won’t stay with you much longer if this continues. You know he’ll insist that it isn’t about you. You won’t be able to live with yourself if you drive him away.

You take a deep breath, staring at a blank space in the sky.

“Okay. Yeah.”

“Hm?”

“Let’s stop. And see how things go.”

“Alright.”

You let out the breath you’d been holding, moving closer to wrap your arm around her. It’s obvious you’ll still need each other around. She’s all you have besides Karkat, who you’ve been cheating on.

No. No, not cheating. There was never anything romantic between you and Rose. That would be weird.

“Hey. Rosie.”

She hums, keeping her eyes on the horizon. 

“How’s Kanaya?”

You swear you see her twitch. Maybe you hit a sore subject. You could have sworn they were fine, last time you heard.

“She’s. She’s good. Moving away, though.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Should you ask anymore? Probably not, but your curiosity gets the best of you. You proceed with caution, however.

“Why?”

“She got a job offer. California. She couldn’t turn it down, and neither of us want a long-distance relationship.”

You pull away a bit, looking at her directly, again.

“Dude.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

You don’t know why you asked that. She gives you the same answer every time you ask. It’s cryptic as shit.

“It wouldn’t feel right.”

And there it is.

“Rose. Rose, listen. You love Kanaya, and you’re my sister and I love seeing you. Move out to LA with me. You’ll love it.”

She sighs, moving away from you, now.

“I’ve been here forever. It’s home.”

You don’t want to give her an out that easy. She’d never let you get away with that. Instead, you grab her hand again and look her head-on.

“Rose. Please. This place isn’t worth being alone.”

She gives you a look and you know you’ve got her hooked. Shit, that was easier than you thought it would be. Something’s wrong. Her face morphs into a smile and you want to bash your head against the wall.

“Dave, did you really think I had any sort of attachment to this place? It’s much too cold.”

“When were you planning on telling me, then?”

She shrugs and leans against your side, letting out a rare Lalonde laugh. “Didn’t have a plan. Was just gonna wing it. Looks like you figured it out on your own, though.” She’s snickering at you now. 

“I’m leaving,” you say, turning back and heading back into the bedroom.

“I hope you’re planning on helping me pack, dude,” she says, following in your footsteps and closing the doors behind the both of you.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've actually got an idea of where this is going, now. if you would like to, consider following gloryandgoreverse on tumblr for previews, updates, etc. 
> 
> as always, please leave comments or shoot me a question.

The flight back to L.A. is long and so far uneventful. Rose has her forehead pressed to the window, completely conked. You can only ogle the flight attendants for so long before your attention span begs for some other kind of entertainment. Huh. Maybe you should check on your kid.

You fish your phone out of your pocket and shoot some messages off to Dirk. You don’t expect him to reply any time soon.

TG: howdy kiddo hows life on the farm been treatin ya  
TG: ok no forget i said anything about that you dont need to be thinking about equestrianism right now you need to be texting me  
TG: im omw back to la from roses  
TG: if you dont respond im kicking your ass via striderpathic connection  
TT: He’s asleep.  
TG: i know  
TG: its wednesday hes always asleep on wednesdays  
TT: But you still seemed hopeful that he would answer you.  
TG: theres this thing called behavioral variance its a human thing you wouldnt understand  
TT: I’ve had some experience with it. Observing others, of course.  
TT: Mostly you. Especially when you’re drunk.  
TG: ok mom  
TG: why are you saying this are you trying to blame me for something  
TG: guilt trip me  
TG: newsflash i am actually always in a permanent state of constantly guilt tripping my self all the time  
TG: im doing you a favor and saving you the trouble youre welcome bitch  
TT: I was only presenting my data, give a guy a break.  
TT: For example, when you gave Dirk “The Talk”.  
TT: I don’t think much clarification is needed.  
TG: haahaha yeah ok youd be trashed too if you had to go through that  
TT: I basically did, after you passed out.  
TT: Someone had to do it, so why not himself, except hyperintelligent and not bound by trivial things like embarrasment.  
TG: i call bs  
TG: you seemed pretty flustered that time i accidentally sent you that sext remember that  
TT: I don’t recall. Must’ve deleted it from my memory banks out of pure disgust.  
TT: That was rhetorical. Of course I remember that.  
TG: ah i love the smell of robodokis in the morning  
TT: Maybe quit trying to get in everyone’s pants for a second and actually focus on the issue at hand here.  
TT: Why did you need Dirk?  
TG: as a puny manservant duh what else are children good for  
TG: i wanted to talk to him dumbass  
TT: The shade you’re throwing. It’s weakening my system.  
TT: 01001110 01101111 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01101111 01110111 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101000 01100001 01100100 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110000 01100001 01101001 01110010 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110011 01101000 01100001 01100100 01100101 01110011 00101110  
TT: Whoops, excuse me.  
TT: Your shade completely blew out my translating unit.  
TT: Way to go, asshole.  
TG: so anyway  
TG: when dyou think hes gonna be awake  
TT: I can wake him if it’s urgent.  
TG: nah just tell him to get his ass in gear when he wakes up 

Welp. You don’t know what you expected. You also hope he doesn’t laugh at you when he finds out how bad you are at verbally assaulting his bot.

You can’t do it because he’s so much like Dirk. You can’t tell either of them that, though.

In light of recent events, you’ve been toying with the idea of having Dirk move out to L.A. with you. A voice in the back of your head is telling you that he probably doesn’t want to anyway, and that he’d just shut you out even more if you asked. Not like you ever listen to the voices, though. They can’t stop you. Nothing can. You’re Dave fucking Strider, you’ve been on the cover of so many magazines that you’ve lost count, you own a way too fucking big house in Los Angeles, you were nominated for an Oscar once, you’ve slept with your sister, you’ve. You left your little brother, your own kid, in an apartment by himself for months. 

You’re awful.

No, you don’t need to be getting in another self-loathing funk right now. Not in public. You make no promises about what you’ll do once you get yourself locked in an airport bathroom stall, though.

Holy shit, are you being emo today. 

You push your shades up onto your head and lean your head on Rose’s shoulder. Just her presence is like a grounding point for you. That’s part of the reason you visit her so much. That, and she’s your goddamn family. The only family you have besides Dirk, who isn’t exactly the best at comforting you like the pansy you are. As soon as the flight attendant makes her next round, you order a drink.

**Author's Note:**

> jesus christ, sorry these are still so short. that will change soon, promise. 
> 
> i'd also like to thank you all for actually continuing to read this trainwreck <3


End file.
